“It might sound like they pooped, but it could just be gas and not worth waking them up to find a clean diaper,” Dr. Candice W. Jones, MD FAAP, a board-certified pediatrician tells Romper. That's why you might want to wait a minute so that the air can clear — literally.
“There are very few circumstances where I'd recommend waking a sleeping baby to change their diaper,” says Mochoruk. Unless your baby has an open sore or serious diaper rash that requires monitoring, let them sleep, she says.
What are the rules? In general, newborn babies need to be changed every 2-3 hours. With poopy diapers, it's pretty straightforward.
Baby poop overnight can be annoying because it can wake baby up. Absolutely change that poopy diaper at night. If you go in for a dreamfeed at night and baby has pooped, change the diaper before you put baby back in the crib for the night, even if you do not typically change the diaper at the feeding.
“If you hear or smell stool while your baby is asleep, you'll want to change the diaper soon, but that does not need to be immediately,” Dr. Arunima Agarwal, MD, a board-certified pediatrician explains to Romper. “If you think they'll wake up soon, then it's okay to wait a little while.
It is completely normal for your newborn to poop frequently at night. At this stage, newborns normally poop right after a feeding and they are eating A LOT at night at first.
Unless you can't be interrupted (like when you're driving), you should change the diaper "reasonably fast," meaning within ten minutes or so during the daytime.
Although diaper rashes aren't always caused by not changing a diaper quickly enough, a baby who sits in a soiled diaper for too long will end up with a severe diaper rash. Baby Center noted that the combination of urine and bacteria in their poop can irritate their skin causing a diaper rash if not taken care of.
While you might not be too keen on it, you can leave a wet diaper alone through the night, and simply change it in the morning. The only need to do otherwise is if your baby's diaper is soaked right through their PJs. If they have had the 'full' toilet experience in the night, you must change it.
Once your baby is around five or six months old, they should be able to sleep up to eight hours at a time. That means no feedings or diaper changes. However, if your baby has gotten in the habit of getting a middle-of-the-night snack, even when they developmentally no longer need it, they will wake up from the habit.
Newborns who sleep for longer stretches should be awakened to feed. Wake your baby every 3–4 hours to eat until he or she shows good weight gain, which usually happens within the first couple of weeks. After that, it's OK to let your baby sleep for longer periods of time at night.
As long as your baby is growing, many pediatricians tell you that you don't need to wake a sleeping baby after a couple weeks old, or at least once they bounced back to their initial birth weight. But, in those early days, many a baby have been woken for a feed during the day and night. Bring on the baby weight!
Bottle-fed babies
Newborn: every 2 to 3 hours. At 2 months: every 3 to 4 hours. At 4 to 6 months: every 4 to 5 hours. At 6+ months: every 4 to 5 hours.
While holding your baby upright for 30 minutes after a feeding may allow for some of the feed to leave the stomach, the majority of the feed remains in their stomach after that time. When you lay your baby down, their immature LES could still open, causing them to spit up.
If your baby is often dirty after a feed, to avoid the disturbance of having to change their nappy twice, it would be better to change the nappy after the feed. If your baby has reflux, they may vomit if they are moved too much with a full tummy, so you might like to change them before a feed.
If you're changing your little one's diaper during a nighttime feeding, either do so before you feed them or halfway through their feeding. If you wait to change their diaper until after you feed them, you might risk waking your baby up, which is exactly not what you want to do at that point!
No. Even with a baby girl, you don't need to worry about wiping after they pee. This is because urine doesn't normally irritate the skin and most nappies easily absorb it anyway .
Most babies will begin laughing around month three or four. However, don't be concerned if your baby isn't laughing at four months. Each baby is different. Some babies will laugh earlier than others.
Baby Wipes are recommended for use on baby's bottom which is the most delicate body part, and they are also safe to wipe on baby's bodies and face.
Begin by cleaning off the poo and then carefully wipe baby's bottom, genitals and in between creases. Wrapping a clean wipe around your finger will help you clean these tiny areas more easily. * Do not use bottom wipes on mucous membranes.
Yes, you should burp your baby even after a dream feed, which is a late-night feeding you wake your little one up for before you head to bed. The reason? Any feeding, including a dream feed, can create gas and/or cause your baby to spit up. So do your best to alleviate that pressure.
That's OK too. Unless your doctor or child and family health nurse has told you otherwise, there's no need to wake your baby for feeds. And at night, the best option might be settling your baby straight back to sleep after feeds, rather than trying to play.
You can bath your baby at any time of the day. It's a good idea to pick a time when you're relaxed and you won't be interrupted. And it's best to avoid bathing your baby when baby is hungry or straight after a feed. If bathing relaxes your baby, you can use it as a way to settle your baby for sleep in the evening.
Some parents bathe their babies daily as part of a bedtime routine or due to regular baby messes, from extra spit-up to diaper blowouts. But for most families, bathing the baby two to three times a week is plenty after the first couple of weeks of life.